Trustroots

Boasting a membership of more than 30,000 people, Trustroots is a free platform that connects locals with travelers worldwide. Available on both desktop and as a smartphone application (or optimised website for iOS), the service promotes itself as a hospitality network specifically for hitchhikers, but that allows anyone with an interest in travel to become a member. Since their launch in 2015, they have prided themselves on being a non-profit, open source organisation, something of which they will continue to provide.

For me, one of the stand out aspects of Trustroots is the ‘Tribes’ feature. These are a simple way for travelers to immediately find the people with whom they share interests, such as vegans and vegetarians, dumpster divers, hikers, cyclists, musicians, artists and buskers. When searching for hosts, you are able to filter members by specific ‘tribes’ to quickly connect with those that you have a common interest with, as well as join as a member yourself to get updates, find profiles and make your own contributions to the community.

Another feature with potential is the Trustroots Blog, containing articles on various topics concerning the platform. However, he layout of the blog is a tedious scroll down format, meaning you cannot quickly find interesting topics and must continually click ‘Older Posts’ in order to load the next set of articles. Furthermore, the blog only provides pieces on Trustroots and its updates, rather than branching out into interesting subjects or tips and advice for travellers. There is an option to subscribe to the blog to receive new posts by email, yet until they add some more engaging topics, it is probably not worth giving up your email address.

The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section is very useful for quickly finding out information on what the platform offers and the ethos that the organisation strives to achieve. There is mention of their long term vision (“We want a world that encourages trust, adventure and intercultural connections”), which I felt gives a fairly good idea of what to expect from becoming a member of the platform.

David Jones

I am a professional travel writer and travel enthusiast who traveled the world twice, so I am sharing my firsthand knowledge about everything related to travel and spending time abroad.